The first of the annual pony drift sales takes place today at Tavistock Livestock Centre. It's thought that there are a lower number of Dartmoor Ponies for sale than normal. Each year, ponies are rounded up by their owners and sold at a number of livestock markets.

There are calls for ponies on Bodmin Moor to be given some form of mark to help identify who owns them. It comes after dozens starved to death and others were put down due to poor health. This report contains an image that you might find upsetting.

A new scheme to tackle the problem of Dartmoor's overbreeding ponies begins today. World Horse Welfare is teaming up with The Friends of The Dartmoor Hill Pony and local vets to provide a group of 20 mares with a contraceptive injection.

The semi-feral ponies will be first rounded up into a holding area where they will be micro-chipped and also marked so that they are identifiable at a distance. They will then be given the injection, and four weeks later a second dose will be administered.